Daybreak Games has reportedly sold PlanetSide 1 and 2 and 5 other licences...

FWIW, at least once a week someone is standing around screaming out on LFC or Shout that DCUO is dead and the servers will be shutting down soon. They use the same arguments you're making as proof the game is dead and that DI or DB are shutting down / shutting the servers down. This is why nobody takes them seriously, and why no one is taking you seriously right now.

Instead of spending all your time trying to convince everyone else to stop playing, maybe just play the game and enjoy whatever time we have left, or just find something else to play. Either way, why do you care if people are playing DCUO, and what do you get out of it if they stop?

I usually put these people on the ignore list, I go into the game to play, I find it funny these people who keep saying that the game is dead, that the game is going to be shut down, but they still play they are still on the forum talking about it, It's just curious, this has been happening since 2014 lol

It is possible they want to spread awareness so more players speak up, and more voices heard, about the current state and situation of the game. The "doomsday preacher" approach lol.
Not exactly trying to get people to leave the game, just join their frustration and protest, per se.
Can't say I understand why they stand around all day doing it instead of actually playing the game, but I can kinda see why they are upset heh.

I'm surprised I never really saw people doing that on Xbox, even though the population dropped drastically within the past few years.

As I've said previously on the game being called dead:
---------------
When people say the game is "dead" or "dying", I usually believe they are talking about the obvious visual decline in population. Xbox has clearly shown this, as every episode release has less and less phases of players active. The last 2 years have shown a massive decline in population, in which has in turn caused toxicity to rise rampant due to less pick-and-choose in running content. It does not look good at all.

Will it actually"die"? No one can say for sure. That's up to the devs and higher-ups.

It's like someone at a party saying "this party is dead" when they notice people leaving. This does not mean the party cannot liven up again at any moment.
---------------

The problem with that metric is that it can be (and usually is) entirely anecdotal. A player can log in at a certain time and see either decent-to-huge activity on their server or little to nothing happening on their particular phase. Worse, they'll take what they see as definitive without taking into account things that can affect how many players happen to be on at a given time (time of day, time of year, other events or bonus weeks taking place, etc.), OR without remembering that what they see may not be what others see on their server/phase of the game.

What also doesn't help is that some will start citing numbers, even though the numbers that ARE available only cover one platform and that platform (PC) doesn't require players to use Steam to play the game. As players we only have small windows to look through to glimpse what the population might be, and the people that can see all the activity? They've never been particularly chatty or exact when talking about that, and over the past decade or so I've yet to see any change in that particular policy.

Speaking personally? If the game were even half as "dead" as some claim, I'd probably still be waiting for my queues on the seasonal instance to pop, and I ran through it on about 11 characters today (trying to get a few extra base items while I had some spare time). Given that experience, seeing the server activity dwindle out in the last days of SWG and the number of "the game world is coming to an end, REPENT REPENT!!" threads I've seen over the years, it's tough to resist an eyeroll or facepalm over the doom and gloom cries when they ring out.

You just got to the moment when I was standing in queue with my 20 alts... and most likely Reinheld was standing there in the queue with his 20 alts (or however many he has from different ACCs... if not for this, you would still be standing in queue

What numbers are you seeing? Does the EG7 reports provide the population numbers? Is this your first MMO? Because this feels like your first MMO. So let someone older who has been around the block explain MMOs. There is always a decline, there is always a rise. MMOs are the purest form of Waves in video gaming. World of Warcraft saw a decline of 5 million players after a Expansion release. Would you believe they are having a current decline now? And guess what, they'll have another rise as they get closer to their next Expansion. For every number you can "show" as a decline, you can also see the rise that occurs as well. As you plainly put it, dont be ignorant to that fact either.

The game isnt dying. The game isnt on Life Support. The game isnt in Maintenance Mode. This period right now, just like we've experienced for the PAST 6+ YEARS OF THE GAME, is in its slow period because players are burnt out, completed everything, plain bored, or they are doing the thing Gamers do best, play other games. When the next Episode releases, theyll be back and then the cycle will repeat itself. Population absolutely isnt where it was before this and before that. The game is close to being a Generational game at this with players that started are now having their own kids and they are playing. I feel for the Switch and Xbox players but PC/PS is just fine. I hope new directions and tech (and red tape) allow for better and proper crossplay between platforms.

Yes, I know the usual shpeal. However, I was on this game for a long time and in long bursts, each episode has less phases as a whole, even the new extra boss phases. It was noticable, and never picked back up since. Last I played, there was always an average of 2 phases for open world and 2 phases of HoL at almost all times. Sometimes went to 3, sometimes down to 1. It was quite consistent. I used to no-life this game practically, it was easy to tell.

I'm still only talking about Xbox as well, where the already low population it's easy to visually see differences when they occur.

I even kept track of the phase amount and peak amounts since BoP, it was always less each episode.

Edit: Like I said though, that's just a visual perspective and not fact of anything. In which is where many people could easily get the "game is dying" outlook from

Edit edit: So once again, emphasis on the:
-It's like someone at a party saying "this party is dead" when they notice people leaving. This does not mean the party cannot liven up again at any moment.-

We can only hope it does.

Meh...me and my alts generally run in a group together. It wasn't me more than likely. But your 20 might have got him there.

We need to do 8v8 PvPs sometime.

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/busin...-dimensional-ink-hit-with-layoffs#close-modal
DC Universe Online dev Dimensional Ink hit with layoffs (gamedeveloper.com)

This is cut and paste for informational purposes only; in case it was not posted somewhere else on the forum.

Peace and DCUO Forever

I've got a bad feeling about all this, and there are 2 possible outcomes: either it's a total restructuring or it's the end...

Its all a sign that the game is going into a new direction a better one lets be real if it was the end we wouldnt have gotten a new creative director last week

I know you were probably corrected later in the thread, but let me give a little more.

In 1997, the company was originally Sony Online Entertainment and was a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment.
In 2015, it was purchased by Columbus Nova er... Jason Epstein and was rebranded Daybreak Game Company.
In 2019, they made subsidiaries by dividing up the company by studio. The Austin studio, which develops DCUO, is called Dimensional Ink Games.
In late 2020, the entire company was purchased by Enad Global 7. Nothing was changed, just new owner. (Apparently Epstein is still a shareholder.)
In early 2022, Jackster left and took half the development team from DInk studio and it forced the parent company (DBG) to cancel the Marvel MMO game and merge who was left to continue working on DCUO.
In early 2024, DBG laid off an undisclosed amount of employees.

The IPs they had, including DCUO, were never sold off individually. The Planetside franchise is not developed by the Austin, TX studio. So it being sold off made sense, considering the company did a round of layoffs, which is always money related.

From what I've read here in the forums, apparently it's been going on since before the game was officially released.

As for the ignore list, that absolutely is an option. I reserve mine for gold sellers, spammers, bigots, and people who spend all their time in-game talking politics or religion. I just made a special tab just for LFG so I can check it when I need to, and took LFG off the default tab. Now when someone sends me a message, it doesn't get immediately scrolled up into oblivion unless I'm in HoL or Little Bohemia.

I personally only ignore people that are very bad apples. Like I see a comment or they say something to me that is extremely offensive.

I also leave default tab as is and created a tab for group, league, and tell chat. So when I log in, I immediately tab over to it.

“ In early 2022, Jackster left and took half the development team from DInk studio and it forced the parent company (DBG) to cancel the Marvel MMO game and merge who was left to continue working on DCUO.”

This part is speculation afaik, any sources for this?

The rest is spot on (it was almost a reverse takeover as EG7 is now led by Ham (CEO) with Epstein as majority stakeholder).

It was a LinkedIn thing, I believe. A lot of the devs that worked at the Austin studio labeled themselves working at Jackster's new company. But you are right, I don't know the exact amount. Could be more or less. Some didn't leave right away, like Charon still worked with DBG until SOBA and joined after that.

EG7 | The Ancient Gaming Noob (wordpress.com)
https://tagn.wordpress.com/tag/eg7/

This is cut and paste for informational purposes only; in case it was not posted somewhere else on the forum.

As always, I am looking for a positive outcome for DCUO and will continue playing this game for as long as it is available.

Peace and DCUO Forever

You're forgetting the move to ProSieben, where we have a cape style with that name.

ProSiebenSat.1 was strictly the EU accounts, not any development or IPs sold, and they were merged back into Daybreak Games not long after, but you are right, that did happen in the timeline. When was that? 2013?

I was more referencing that Jack leaves, then they cancel the Marvel MMO.

Personally, I think it was the reverse. EG7 changes direction, doesn’t want to invest the amount of money it would require to develop a Marvel MMO, Jack leaves because of the decision/maybe not related at all.

I think creating a new EverQuest is a good idea. I just don’t like that it came at the “seemingly” expense of DCUO investment…